Books by David (School of Oriental and African Studies Arnold

An account of how small machines and consumer goods that originated in Europe and North America became objects of everyday use in India in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It examines the assimilation and appropriation of bicycles, rice mills, sewing machines, and typewriters in India.

In this original and timely work, David Arnold draws upon the history of Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe, to explain the origins and characteristics of famine. He considers whether some societies are more vulnerable to famine than others, and contests the assumption that those affected by famine are simply passive a victimsa .

Interest in the science, technology and medicine of India under British rule has grown in recent years and has played an ever-increasing part in the reinterpretation of modern South Asian history. Spanning the period from the establishment of East India Company rule through to Independence, David Arnold's wide-ranging and analytical survey demonstrates the importance of examining the role of science, technology and medicine in conjunction with the development of the British engagement in India and in the formation of Indian responses to western intervention. One of the first works to analyse the colonial era as a whole from the perspective of science, the book investigates the relationship between Indian and western science, the nature of science, technology and medicine under the Company, the creation of state-scientific services, 'imperial science' and the rise of an Indian scientific community, the impact of scientific and medical research and the dilemmas of nationalist science.